Wednesday, May 9, 2007

I blogged about Prostores.com and at the time I did not realize that they took a chunk of every sale made. If I had known I wouldn't have reviewed them. Sorry about that, my friendly readers.

I would recommend checking out DesignersI.com. There is a 15 day trial that allows you to try our their software and look at their features. I have been using it and enjoying the flexibility. They have two plans if you want to build it yourself and two if you want have it built for you:

Professional (orange-1) $499.00 One time set-up/design fee$39.95/Month

No contracts

Web hosting included

40 Meg Hard Drive Space

80 pages

10 email addresses

Webmail

eMarketing tools

Search engine optimization

Site traffic reporting tools

48 hour turnaround

Web pros work for you

Search engine optimization

5 web pages designed

1 customized header

Platinum Plan - (Orange 2)$749.00 One time set-up/design fee$59.95/

No contracts

Web hosting included

80 Meg Hard Drive Space

15 email addresses

1000 pages

Webmail

eCommerce package

eMarketing tools

Search engine optimization

Site traffic reporting tools

Initial store set-up—up to 20 products

48 hour turnaround

Web pros work for you

Search engine optimization

8 web pages designed

3 customized headers

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All plans have Ebay and PayPal integration. I have to say that creating pages and subpages is extremely easy. I also love the following features

Store Settings: You can activate your Shopping Cart Indicator and choose when and where you display your Privacy and/or Refund Policies, plus prompt an eNewsletter sign-up at check-out.

Shipping & Tax Zones: Determine your delivery options and calculate shipping and tax costs passed on to your customer at the time of order depending on their geographic location.Sales & Promotions: Manage sale and discount offers and create promotional codes to extend discounts to preferred customers.

PayPal® Payment Settings: Allow your customers to process transactions through the Internet’s most popular E-Commerce Gateway for small business – PayPal®. With over 50 million users worldwide, PayPal® is the recognized standard on the web, ensuring the highest levels of security and reliability.

eBay® Integration: Sell your products on eBay®, The world's most popular and largest Online Marketplace.

Visually Appealing Templates: The templates are nice and classy. Some of the nicest templates I have seen yet.

Military Encryption: I don't think I even need to expand on this.

You can also create newsletters, visitor polls, create captions, easily add your custom logo and manage the layout of the page.

The 15 day trial has allowed me to choose a template and create a store that I can look at and decide if I want to invest in it (and I do). In addition, the templates can be modified to become wider. FTP set up is available.

I have spent the last week reading every review on every shopping cart there is. I have asked advice, I have used trial periods and there is nothing I like more than the Designersi shopping cart web builder. I spoke with one of their managers today and he stressed that superior customer service is what sets their company apart from the others. So if you have a question, call them. You will be surprised at how polite and friendly they are.

Great blog on Designers-i. I too needed a content management solution that met my companies compliance standards. Not only did Designers-i meet those tough standards but they also offered built-in newsletter and search engine optimization features.

As you had indicated in your blog Melissa. I'm a lawyer and a freelance writer and I recently set up a technical writing and consulting practice. When I was looking to get a web site built for my business I came across Designers-i Website Manager.

Designers-i is a "secret" tool that every business could benefit from using.

The Designers-I team were so easy to work with and our new website, using a customized template, was up and running within days. The website editor is intuitive and easy to use – updating our web pages is a breeze. I especially like the various reports in the web stats area. It’s been a pleasure working with Designers-I and I highly recommend their services

I want to thank Melissa for this unsolicited testimonial. Designeri is a boutique e-Business solutions provider and we pride ourselves on quality (products and Service). We are in this business for the long run and we know how important a role the web plays in our clients businesses.

Please feel free to visit our website (http://www.designersi.com) and if you have any question you can always call us at 866-838-0580.

Thank you all for your very positive feedback … it does make a difference!